Our organizational and operational goal is to engage with the UT community, institutional peers, and industry partners as a customer-focused and friendly face of technology. We serve the community through OIT-initiated presentations and events, conference presentations, and invitations to speaking engagements to share our unique skills and knowledge with others. 

Inaugural UT Innovative Technologies Symposium

OIT sponsored a new UT Innovative Technologies Symposium in January 2024, inviting staff, faculty, and students within the UT Knoxville campus community to participate in the planning, presentations, and attendance. This day-long event featured scheduled sessions, along with dedicated time to network, collaborate, and connect within our unique community of technology enthusiasts. The enthusiasm exhibited through attendance, volunteer-led sessions, and lively conversations is a testament to how connected our community is and how excited we are to see what the future holds. 

2024 Symposium Highlights

Up Next: The UT Innovative Technologies Symposium will expand to all higher education institutions in the state.

Speaking Engagements

OIT staff enthusiastically share their passion and knowledge through engaging presentations, collaborations, and participation for campus-based groups and at events like Ellucian Live, Dreamforce, EDUCAUSE, and Microsoft conferences.

OIT Staff Presentations at UT Events and Professional Conferences

Trending Speaking Topics

Microsoft Teams Awareness

OIT organized two professional development opportunities for faculty and staff centered around Microsoft Teams.

Teams Unleashed 2024

In April 2024, we invited faculty and staff to attend a full-day interactive Microsoft Teams event, Teams Unleashed 2024, featuring hands-on sessions exploring project management, communication strategies, and the latest platform features.

Teams Tips and Tricks

Throughout the spring, OIT hosted weekly Tips and Tricks sessions, equipping participants with practical skills for mastering Teams, collaborating effectively, and staying organized.
Watch the recorded sessions online.

OIT AI Services for Research and Academics

In June 2024, OIT hosted a half-day event to showcase its AI services. Staff demonstrated secure applications of AI in research and teaching through engaging presentations and discussions.

Topics Presented:

• UT Verse and Copilot: Current and Upcoming Features
• OIT Software with AI & Machine Learning (ML) Capabilities
• Teaching and Learning Technologies with AI
• AI and High-Performance Computing
• Getting Support and Information for AI from OIT

Watch the recordings online.

Annual UT Bioinformatics Symposium

The fourth annual UT Bioinformatics Symposium, held in October 2024 and hosted by OIT High Performance and Scientific Computing, brought together bioinformatics researchers from across the UT System on the following topics:

• Designing Vaccines for Cancer
• Data-Driven Population Health Surveillance
• Deep Learning Models for Biological Data Integration
• Wild Pathosystems for Evolutionary Applications in Plant Pathology

Watch the presentations online.

Canvas Catalog

OIT provides administrative support for UT Canvas Catalog, an outreach platform for non-credit, non-degree educational training. This course management system allows UT Knoxville units to centralize their public outreach, continuing education programs, and professional development offerings in an attractive online marketplace.

Canvas Catalog Engagement

Training Development Services

Departments and colleges often lack the additional resources needed to successfully develop and implement their supplementary instructional initiatives. This is where we come in! OIT designs, develops, and deploys online training, professional development, and continuing education programs that help departments and colleges achieve instructional goals that extend beyond for-credit academic courses.

In 2024, OIT partnered with nine departments to develop customized training programs that are delivered in Canvas Catalog.

Visit the Training Development page to learn more about what OIT has to offer!

IRB

OIT Research Computing Support participates in the Institutional Review Board (IRB) at UT Knoxville and the IRB at the UT Medical Center. The Institutional Review Board (IRB) is an administrative body within the Human Subjects Protection Program, established to protect the rights and welfare of human research subjects recruited to participate in research activities conducted under the auspices of the affiliated institution.​​​

The IRB is responsible for reviewing all research (whether funded or not) involving human participants and is concerned with protecting the welfare, rights, and privacy of human subjects.

LAN Managers

For 30 years, OIT has partnered with the distributed campus technology support specialists in the Knoxville area to share information, collaborate to solve problems, and bring new initiatives to campus. This year’s collective includes 149 technology specialists from 64 different departments.

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